Yeah, I'm glad there's some interest. I'm sure it will just take some time to fill out.

It looks like it is, good to have some friendly competition. Need to bring my squat up, that's my priority now for the next 6 months or so as it's pretty shit if I'm brutally honest; it should be not that far off my DL, at the moment there's a massive gap that needs to be closed

It looks like it is, good to have some friendly competition. Need to bring my squat up, that's my priority now for the next 6 months or so as it's pretty shit if I'm brutally honest; it should be not that far off my DL, at the moment there's a massive gap that needs to be closed

What do you think is the major sticking point keeping your squats so far behind your deadlift? You can leg press a fair amount of weight, so your legs should be pretty strong? I recall you mentioned you had good proportions for deadlifting, perhaps those same proportions limit your squat?

Killed it! 9 reps on the deadlift final set would have been on par with what I've done the first week of every previous cycle, but I went in telling myself I was going to do 10 today. The bar was just flying up off the floor on each of my warmups and the final set was no different. I easily made it to the 10th rep and felt good for another. I had to hitch a little at the top of #11, but I got it. Man, that feels good!

The deadlift portion took a while so I had to cut the workout short. Instead of doing the planned GHR, leg raise, and bar hold, I just did a few sets of weighted pullups and weighted bar hangs.

Should have been able to get another rep or 2 on bench. Everything else went fine. Felt great on the rows and dips, happy to get 25 reps on Kroc rows and finish the 5 sets of dips. Getting slowly closer to my BW exercise goals of 5x10 pullups and 5x15 dips.

I failed the first try at a set of 280 lbs. I let my torso get out a bit too far forward at the bottom of the lift and I folded. The legs were good to push it up but my core couldn't handle the weight. Dumped the bar on the pins, racked it, and went again. I probably could have hit 1 or 2 more reps with a bit of a pause between them, but I was fine that I at least did 5. Had to cut the workout short so I skipped the assistance today. I think I'm going to start squatting a bit more frequently. As it stands I'm only squatting once every 9-10 days, and I think my form is starting to suffer for it. Even if I'm only going to 75-85% of my max on the non-main-squat days, I think I need to start doing it again. It will make my workouts a little longer, but I think it needs to happen.

I could have hit 6 reps on the 140 lbs press, but decided to keep it in the tank. I've been going all out on the final set of each lift - only a couple of times did I decide to leave some in the tank. I've read about it in a few T-Nation articles, so I'm going to give it a try and only go all out on the last heavy set of each cycle. I've been progressing well enough so far, but I'm happy to try it out.

Decided I'm going to do daily squats, even if it's only a few sets as assistance. It will give me more work on my form and hopefully I'll feel better going into each heavy squat day.

Tried out the Klokov press today. Barely pushed out 5 at 95 lbs. It seemed to stress my front delts a bit more than the standard press. Interesting to try, but not sure if I'm going to add it to my rotation.

I decided to try hook grip on my last two sets, even though I know it starts to give out around 315. Managed the 320 pretty well so I was confident going into the 360 with hook grip. Hit the first two reps and knew it would barely hold for another so I switched to over/under for the rest of the set. Wished I could have finished the set but it's still better performance than in the past with hook grip so I'm happy with it.

I decided that instead of alternating between parallel and ATG squats on my squat days, I'm just going to do below-parallel on my squat days and ATG as assistance on all the other days. I really like the feeling of how easy ATG 225 lbs squats have become, although the second set was noticeably harder today, probably due to being after deadlifts. Add the GHRs to the mix and my legs are pretty beat now.

I like the weighted pullups going into a hang-hold after deadlifting. Not only does it work on shoulders/upper back, but adds grip strength training and hopefully some spinal decompression. Although I'm not sure how good it is to do hangs with a weighted belt, given the pelvic tilt induced by the way the belt sits with the weight hanging off it. It doesn't seem quite as natural a position and I don't seem to get the same kind of back stretch as I do without a weight belt.

Wasn't feeling it today. Ended up with poor bench performance. My elbows were swinging a little wide on the bench and I didn't like what my shoulders were doing. No pain or such, but didn't care for the form. Got to the gym late so I had to cut the workout short.

I just realized that I didn't stretch out today after the workout. I was in a rush to get back to the office and planned to do it then but got sidetracked. Oh well, should be fine as it wasn't a super heavy day today.

Went deep on all squats save the last set. I only went to parallel on those. I probably should have gone deep but wasn't feeling it. Also left a rep in the tank, I could have done another. I'll push hard next week when I do my heaviest squat of the cycle.

Since my next cycle is going to be interrupted by the Christmas holiday (gym at my University is closed for 10 days) I think I'm going to test my maxes the last week before the break. Then after the holiday I'll either start Cycle 6 or maybe switch to Madcow for 12 weeks. Still thinking about it.

A bit disappointed on the 4x150 OHP. I wanted to get 5 reps, but halfway up the bar stopped moving. I push-pressed it up afterwards just for the mental satisfaction. That keeps my theoretical 1RM at 169 lbs. When I try to max out in a few weeks I'll see if I can hit 175.

Happy about finally hitting 5x8 on pullups. Now I can start the next arduous chapter of pullups and try to hit 5x9. It took me 2 months to get from 5x7 to 5x8, so it will probably be another 2 months. I also want to try to hit some muscle-ups. Last time I tried them was 2-3 months ago and I couldn't hit one. Skipped bar holds as I was running out of time. Did a bar hang as an afterthought while I was stretching out.

The pull went well. Not easy, but I didn't really struggle with it either. Looking forward to testing my 455 lbs max pull next month!

*Edit- I listed my theoretical max pull at 475 lbs, which I just noticed was incorrect. According to my spreadsheet that does all the calculations automatically my max should be 455 lbs. I might feel bold and go for 465, but 475 is probably still a few months off.

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